What's that old man up to this time?
Rasa had no idea, but to be fair... it had been a while since he last visited Ebizō's research site. Now, the place actually looked halfway decent.
At the very least, the perimeter was fenced in, and there were more people bustling about.
Inside the fence, the ground was laid out in square patches—grass?
Rasa furrowed his brows curiously, crouched down, and examined it closely. A moment later, his eyes widened in surprise.
"This is… wheat straw?"
"Yes~"
Wearing his signature white sand-proof cloak, Ebizō had just emerged.
"This is indeed wheat straw," he confirmed casually.
As he spoke, he pointed toward another section of the field.
"Over there, we've got rice straw and reedgrass. I've tried just about every kind of plant I could get my hands on."
"..."
Rasa swept his gaze around. Indeed, there were various strange types of plant matter laid out. Still—
"Where did you even get all this?"
"The wheat straw came from the Land of Earth," Ebizō said, kneeling beside Rasa with a satisfied smile as he gently patted the scratchy surface. "As for the rice straw and reeds, those came from the Land of Fire. Personally, I prefer those two. There's a lot more of them over there, and the Land of Fire borders both the Land of Rain and isn't too far from us in the Land of Wind. Easier to gather in bulk. We need way more than just a few bundles, after all. Once we manage to cultivate our own stock, we won't need to 'source' them anymore."
"...Don't tell me…" Rasa's tone shifted, suspicion creeping in. "You never thought to just buy it?"
"Why buy it? It's just straw," Ebizō replied like it was the most natural thing in the world. Then he suddenly turned serious. "Even you, Lord Kazekage, shouldn't be wasteful with money. The village finally started turning a profit. How can you just throw it away? We need to set a frugal example for the people—not spoil them with wasteful spending!"
"You're the last person I want to hear that from."
Does he even know how much he's been spending lately?!
Way more than my gacha pulls, that's for sure!
"And even if you're skimming… how much could you possibly collect like that? Wouldn't it be easier to just hire people in the Land of Fire to gather it and pay—"
"No, no. This stuff is practically worthless. Most of it ends up being burned or discarded," Ebizō waved him off. "Just have our grain collection squads grab some along the way. As long as we don't give away what it's really for, no one's gonna charge us."
"So what you're saying is—"
"Sneak in. Don't get caught."
"..."
Where the hell did you pick up that line?
Still—
Rasa gave a satisfied nod as he looked at the neatly arranged square patches of grass embedded in the desert sand. "So… it worked?"
As soon as he said it—
Ebizō sighed, rubbing his head. "More or less, I guess."
"???"
"Getting rice straw, wheat straw, and reeds isn't expensive, but the process of tying them into bundles is particularly time-consuming and labor-intensive. If we were to lay them out on a large scale, the manpower, resources, and funds required wouldn't be cheap. But once successful, planting within the straw checkerboard framework… can increase the survival rate of plants."
"I see…" Rasa nodded slowly, then frowned again, lost in thought. After a moment, he muttered, "So there really isn't a cheap, fast, stable solution, huh… Still gotta cut corners somewhere."
He sighed again, staring down at the anti-desertification test plots.
"This'll have to do for now. Bit by bit, we'll figure it out. Anyway, I assume you didn't drag me here just to show off your grass."
"Heh~ not just that," Ebizō grinned mysteriously and stood up. "There's something else."
"Oh? So your experiments are actually going well for once?"
Rasa gave him a sideways glance. But after a moment, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"Wait a minute—before I got here, you were pestering me nonstop. And now you're just chatting? Explaining all this calmly? No way…"
He squinted at the older man, who now wore a sheepish grin.
"You're out of funding again, aren't you?"
"Hehehe~ As expected of the great Lord Kazekage—wise, sharp, powerful and compassionate! Truly the pillar of Sunagakure! Handsome and humble too!"
"Stop." Rasa shut it down with a deadpan glare. "You know I hate that bootlicking crap. Sounds like nails on a chalkboard."
He rubbed his temples.
"If I remember correctly… didn't you just request a new budget recently?"
How the hell did you burn through it already?!
Don't tell me you snuck off like a certain Sannin to blow it all at one of those… "premium" establishments?
"Well? Explain."
"Come on, Kazekage-sama~ It's a crucial stage in the experiment! Plus, I've got so many workers to pay… and the glass factory is still bleeding money!" Ebizō raised his hands in helpless frustration. "We're mostly spending without earning anything back yet!"
"Then why the hell did you hire so many people?"
"Because it's for the future of Sunagakure! These sacrifices are necessary!" he declared solemnly. "This is all for the good of the village!"
"..."
Sure, it's about the future—but you can't burn through every coin we have in the present, damn it.
"So what—you want another advance?"
"Let's do this," Rasa said, exhaling. "Show me what you've got. But I'll say it now—if I'm not impressed, you're not getting a single coin."
He glanced around. "Where is this new invention of yours?"
Before Ebizō could respond—
Suddenly, sweat beaded across the old man's forehead. He hesitated.
"Beneath you, Lord Kazekage… look under your foot."
"Huh? Oh, this? I was meaning to ask—what's this brown clump under my—"
Rasa looked down at the dark mound near his sandal and moved to step on it.
"Don't tell me you snagged this from the Land of Earth too?"
"Wait, wait, WAIT—Kazekage-sama, don't step—!"
Too late.
Rasa's foot landed squarely on the lump—his entire leg sank halfway in.
The stench hit immediately.
A thick silence fell over the field.
The smell? Unbearable.
After a long moment of painful stillness…
Ebizō wiped the sweat from his brow. His voice was low and careful.
"Seems… the fermentation still needs time. It's not quite fertilizer yet. Kazekage-sama… perhaps come back tomorrow?"
"..."
Rasa stared down at his now-yellow-streaked shoe.
Then slowly, his head rose.
"...Get. Out."
"OUT!"
Tell you what—your budget?
Gone.
ALL of it.